Baby Swimming Class

So one of the things that we thought was terribly important to give to Baby Thomas was that he should (as soon as possible) be comfortable in the water (as far as we could facilitate it), and (when he is ready himself) that he be happy to learn to swim - so - with great thanks to my folks (who paid for it as his early Christmas present), back at the end of November (at around four months old) we started him on his baby swimming classes...

The reason we decided this would be a good idea was simply because, on our honeymoon in Mexico, on about our second day lazing by the impossibly vast and (almost) private pools (thanks to cunningly travelling just outside US college break and UK half-term, saving ourselves a *packet*), we were both shocked into flying from our sunbeds to try and rescue a small girl who had apparently just gleefully fled her folks and flung herself to certain death from the side of the pool (as her parents sauntered a hundred feet behind, chatting to each other and quite unconcerned)...as I staggered to the edge of the pool I saw the little one giggling and clinging onto the edge, kicking her feet and smiling, her parents approached calmly slinging towels onto sunbeds, cooing to her as to how clever she was and then lowering themselves into the water next to her...their subsequent explanation as to how she came to have this level of skill (to answer our gaping mouths), when children two-three years older are frequently reported in tragic circumstances having been found floating face down in the next door neighbours 6 inch deep fish pond - ended in a vow to make *sure* any child of ours had similar lessons...

Although, I have to say, it's a little harrowing to actually see (and not much better even the third or fourth time you are witness) when your little boy is plunged (by either tutor, spouse or your own hand) beneath the water to come up gasping for air... <:S
The rest of the secrets of the class I am bound by contract to keep silent about, but when I read in the paper a few weeks ago about a kid who fell into a swollen river as his frantic family looked on, and proceeded to just calmly swim to the edge as he had been taught to do from the age of two weeks old, you know it couldn't possibly make any more sense...